This invention relates to a combined film cassette unloading and film processing device, in which a light-tight closable container comprises, in its interior, means for holding a film cassette in such a manner that a piece of film of determined length can be withdrawn therefrom, as well as film cutting means for cutting off the withdrawn piece of film.
In recent years there has been a considerable increase in the home processing and printing of photographic films. But at the same time it is becoming increasingly difficult and inconvenient for people who wish to process and print their own films to find in their home a suitable room which can be blacked out and used as dark room. In particular when a normal spiral processing tank is loaded with exposed photographic film straight from a cassette this operation is required to be carried out in the virtual absence of all visible light.
A number of prior art daylight loading processing tanks have been described in the patent literature but few have been actually used because of their expense, complexity and bulkiness. For example in U.S. Pat. No. 2,290,152 there is described a complex spiral daylight loading processing tank which comprises an auxiliary chamber in which a film cassette is received. This is a bulky tank and would be difficult to load with the film. A similar complex and bulky device is described in British patent specification No. 671,170. A more elegant solution to the problem is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,906,966 wherein a cassette is unloaded onto a spiral which is present in a shallow processing dish, and not in a tank. Processing would not be uniform in such a shallow dish as it could be very difficult to wet the film uniformly as well as to provide the correct type of agitation. An even more complex solution to the problem is described in the published French patent application No. 2,369,597 wherein the film is loaded in daylight onto a spindle which is extended out of a receiver. The spindle can then be retracted into the body of the receiver. To process the film the receiver is associated with a processing container and the spindle carrying the film is extended into the processing container. The film is then unwound into the processing liquid and wound up again.